As I was hugging Hammie my hand suddenly came across a huge bump. I then see a HUGE tick sticking out of his neck. EEEWWWWWWWW again! Addie has never had one, so of course I freak out. Now, I live in the woods and have seen my share of bugs.....just not hanging off the side of my dog's neck. So....I hike down to my fearless neighbor buddy, an old timer farmer fellow. He proceeds to remove the tick as I turn my head. He then makes me look...so I can see he got the head out (YEAH, like I wanted to SEE it). My question is this...what happens if you don't get the head out?? I'm thinking there could be infection??, but anything else to fret over??? This was the 'BIG DADDY' of tick world, and it left a little crater, so I've been cleaning it out with peroxide. Actually, even with flea & tick stuff.....I'm surprised I've not seen more. What do you do when you have a tick??? Remove it yourself...go to the vet? And, may I just say once again........EEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Debi, the easiest way for the squeamish is to put a dab of Off or some other insect repellant right on that big ol' bloodsucker. It'll back out, you grab it (with a paper towel or however you want - I KNOW you don't want to touch it) and you kill it. I don't suggest squishing it; if it's big, it's gonna splatter blood all over; if it's still small, it's very difficult. My Mom used to go all out and burn them - that's a bit of overkill; I put them in an old jar with an inch or so of water and some dishwashing detergent (to break the surface tension so they can't float) and just set it out of the way until the next de-ticking.

The little tiny deer ticks are the ones you have to watch out for; they're the ones that carry the tick fever. I've pulled a few off my dogs and they don't seem to be affected, but I'm careful handling those. Frontline should keep most of the problem at bay, and it's usually worst in the spring. You might want to wear a hat and spray your clothes, especially your pant legs and the outside of the hat, with repellant when you're walking in the woods. They like people, too.

And yes, you may say again . . . EEEEEWWWWWWWW! By the way, you probably made the farmer's day - he was probably rolling in the floor telling the family about his Good Deed later that evening!

And just to be on the safe side..it would be a good idea if you called your vet up and asked them whether lyme disease is common in your area..and whats the earliest you can get your dog tested (they'll take your dog's blood) for it...its quite a serious disease spread by ticks...so to be on the safe side, you may want to get some bloodwork done on her to make sure everything is ok...its kinda like a heartworm blood test I think..

When I used to live in Las Vegas, the ticks were amazing. I had flea collars on both my dogs but all it did was make the ticks move down to their groins and rear ends. I tried everything the vet recommended, but still had to pull a few off every day. The worst one was when my escape artist Lab, Joe took off overnight, and came back almost a day later, with no flea collar, and 67 ticks on him. I spent a couple of hours getting them off with a pair of heated up tweezers. The next morning, I woke up and there was something in my armpit. A huge tick was all blown up! It really creeped me out. I used the hot tweezers on my armpit. It hurt when the tick started squirming. I guess it crawled on me when I was working on Joe's ticks.

I gave the bottle with 68 of them to the vet. He put it in his display cabinet.

I sure wish they had some of the flea and tick stuff they have now back then, almost 25 years ago.